1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cervical correcting brace and, more particularly, to a cervical correcting brace which can be securely attached to and provide long-term support for a cervical spine of a patient.
2. Description of Related Art
Many cervical braces are provided for treatment of defective spines. For example, FIG. 5 shows a cervical brace which includes a pair of spaced upright bars (30), each bar (30) having a straight lower section (31) and an inclined upper section (13) extending upward and forward from the lower section (31).
The cervical brace further includes a top crosspiece (34) interconnecting top ends of the upper sections (33) and a bottom crosspiece (32) interconnecting bottom ends of the lower sections (31) of the spaced bars (30), with each of the crosspieces (32, 34) being formed with a V-shaped portion (320, 340).
As shown in FIG. 6, the conventional cervical brace is applied to a patient""s body by placing the lower sections (31) alongside a row of spinous processes of cervical vertebra, with the V-shaped portion (320) of the bottom crosspiece (32) engaging a cervical spine (20), and the V-shaped portion (340) of the top crosspiece (14) engaging the cranium (21) at its occipital. The conventional cervical brace must be fixed to the cervical spine (20) by winding a wire (22) round the top crosspiece (34) and the straight lower sections (31) of the bars (30), as well as round the cervical spine (20).
However, it has been found that this cervical brace might not remainsecurely attached to the cervical spine for sufficient time, since the wire (22) might slide over the straight lower sections (31) of the bars (30) and over the top crosspiece (34) inwardly, as denoted by opposite double arrows in FIG. 6, as a result of motion of the patient.
Therefore, it is an objective of the invention to provide a cervical correcting brace to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problem.
The object of the present invention is to provide a cervical correcting brace which can be securely attached to a cervical spine of a patient.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.